Ready to Block

Sometimes the days just get away from me - it's been an entire week since I've posted, but to tell the truth I haven't gotten a lot of knitting in. The world intrudes.

My shawl, despite a few setbacks, is finally done. There it sits in all its unblocked glory. As you know, I ran out of yarn about five rows from the end. When the new shipment of Kersti came I decided there was enough to add those five rows plus an entire pattern repeat. I know, I know... despite dedicating an entire post to never learning, ever the optimist am I. There was enough for the extra pattern repeat, but not for the five rows of garter + bind-off. Tink. Tink. tinktinktinktinktink.



I finally ended up with two rows of garter and bound off using the Russian bind-off you see above. It's accomplished like this: *p2tog, slip the st back onto the left needle, repeat from * to end.



In other knitterly happenings, I was over at Knitting in La Jolla picking up some Cascade superwash for a little somethin-somethin for Snoop, and got distracted by a couple of books - Lace Style, which I promptly added to my "Style" library, and No Sheep for You Actually, Suzanne showed me No Sheep because it has a sweater pattern that is basically the World's Biggest Shedir -



yes, even bigger than my own gigantic one - that has three pages of charts and looks like it might take my natural lifetime to knit!.

Anyway, I've been paging through them all week for inspiration, and yesterday I cast on six stitches: the start of the Tuscany shawl (scroll down for a photo) from No Sheep.

Mary's playhouse continues to progress, but the weird fog we've had (See? La Jolla has weather problems too. And I was going to link to a picture of the fog, but the first hit on google images that really showed it also linked to a naked guy holding some kind of crustacean at Black's Beach, which frankly sounds like a bad idea and wasn't very attractive to view, either. So no photo for you.) has not been conducive to painting. And - horrors - rain is predicted on Wednesday. Maybe later in the week I'll get a shot of the playhouse if the sun cooperates.

And - looky here! Snoop's ears have stood up, making him look like a cross between a fruit bat and a holstein.

Guilt is a Powerful Motivator

Some time ago, a friend gave us her children's old playhouse because her house was about to be remodeled and it was in the way. John went down and disassembled it, hauled it up here, planted the pieces in our side yard and we all went about our business, ignoring Mary's little comments: "I wonder when my playhouse will be finished....I wonder if I'll be able to play in it someday....I wonder if I'll be grown up, out of college, and working on an MBA when it's done...."

Okay, maybe it didn't go that far, but at this point my friend's remodel is done and the playhouse is still in pieces.

Since Snoop's arrival the playhouse has started to bug me.



Snoop goes potty on a little plot of grass that, if you stand there with him, makes it darn near impossible not to notice something like a disassembled playhouse.

So here we are this weekend, the weather's nice, there are myriad heinous tasks pressing in (laundry, taxes, work) but we've gotta get that playhouse built while Mary can still fit through the door. We're hoping to put the roof on tonight and maybe I'll be able to start painting next week.

Which leads me to other guilt sources: the taxes!! are probably the hugest thing hanging over my head and making me crazy, but there's also some KAG (knitting-associated guilt):




This is the cabled shawl with pockets from Knitpicks, more than half done and going nowhere.



This is half a shedir, strewn amidst the left over balls from other projects.




This is the shawl I needed the extra ball of Kersti for, which I thought would be done by now.

And then there are those as-yet-unstarted mittens to go with the little cabled hats.

To top it all off, we, and by this I mean probably most of you reading this, too - all woke up minus an hour this morning. Stupid spring forward.

The Hardships of Winter

Dateline La Jolla, CA: Severe weather rocks San Diego County!

That's right folks...while you might be trapped on a plane for 11 hours where you live, here in Windanseaville these oranges have been on the ground for at least 8 hours while their owners wonder when the drizzle will stop long enough to go outside without getting their hair all frizzy.

And lookie here - the umbrella!



Okay, John says I have to stop before I jinx us. Wouldn't want to do that - I liked getting to go to the beach over the weekend - Mary even swam yesterday.

Anyway, I'm knitting away on another Shedir and also a shawl from Lavish Lace using Koigu Kersti, which I'm truly enjoying.

In other knitting news, my sister finished her first circular-knit hat, which turned out pretty cute. She's knitting a PICC cozy right now.

Speaking of which, Tami T in CT asked for a PICC cozy pattern. There's one at Knitpicks, but I'm working on a few possibilities that I'll post pretty soon. The first one I made was super simple:

1" of K2P2 rib over 32 sts in the round on dpns.
Switch to stockinette, inc to 36 sts, knit for 6".
1" of K2P2rib, and bind off.

See it here on Fiona's arm? Truly, her arm doesn't usually look like Mary-Kate Olsen's - this is just bad photography.



Basically, if you know your gauge and the measurement of the arm above and below the elbow, you're knitting a sleeve with two cuffs. If you don't know the measurements, it should just fit an adult arm. Also, I used washable yarn, because I was thinking that might be useful. And it shouldn't be scratchy - cancer patients have enough to make them uncomfortable, no?

Anyway, like I said, I'm thinking about other designs and will post them as soon as I have anything.

Here's something else: Sarah-Hope, designer of the much-admired Santa Cruz Hat on Magknits, made my Horseshoe Hat for a very handsome friend! I love seeing people's pictures of patterns I've made up - the yarn they choose, the alterations they make - it's cool. One of these days I'll make a list of links because I know you're out there, my friends, but not today. Today's perfect for just knitting.

Still Too Big

Even after the shrinkage, the shedir is a little too big. Maybe if it's worn with the brim folded up a little...maybe...it might work. And just look at it, lying there all innocent-like.

I did love, however, knitting with Calmer - it's awesome. The hat, even after washing & drying pretty roughly, feels like the knees of your favorite jeans. It's soft and velvety, and the yarn has a little elasticity, so it should knit to fit unless you're a gaugiot (that's gauge-idiot, i.e. someone like me).

Speaking of Calmer, I was down at The Grove last week, browsing (There isn't a ton of yarn there, but what they have is good quality and they have a multitude of cool stuff for ribbon embroidery, books, cards, and assorted other inspirations; plus it's across from Rebecca's) - they had an unbanded ball they let me have for practically free. It's sort of a light lavender so maybe it'll be a shedir for Mary. (Which will probably fit John if I haven't learned my lesson, and I guess he can wear it to the Gay Pride Parade and people will wonder just what kind of marriage we have, exactly. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

And today, even more Calmer. A brickish red, bought at Knitting in La Jolla (my LYS, lucky me) along with size 1 addi turbos to start that new shedir. I'm a little afraid of the addis for this yarn - it's kind of slippy. John suggested surfboard wax, or possibly a little steel wool action, to which I said, "Yeah, no." I'll just try to be a little more careful.



Clearly, Patty believes in being Calmer herself.

Ho Hum.

I've just finished a lace scarf that I knit mainly to be able to invoke the OO/OI rule. I'm not crazy about it - we'll have to see if it grows on me. Here it is pinned to my carpet. I used some yarn that was pretty in the ball but only so-so knit up - it can't decide if it's apricot or salmon, so instead it's just unappetizing.

In other breaking news, I finished my first shedir. Because I hate gauging (Dear baby knitters: Please knit a gauge swatch. You can be a better person than I am. But if you can't, take comfort from this ) I just launched into it, figuring the stretchiness of the yarn and stitch pattern would cover my usual multitude of sins (by which I mean the giganticness of my knitting).

Shedir is now in the drier, getting the bejesus shrunk out of it so it will fit, oh, ANYONE I know. Cross your fingers.